Workshops in Switzerland 2019

At the end of February 2019 I'll be off to Switzerland for my annual teaching trip to Creative Glass at Volketswil just outside of Zurich. This will be the sixth time I have taught there and it is just an amazingly lovely place. The studio is very spacious with a lovely separate dining area and the whole place is filled with wonderful glass (even the sink in the toilet is amazing!! ;) lol

This year I'll be teaching four new workshops that I haven't taught in Switzerland before. There is still a little space on some of them so why not come and join in!!! 

All the details are on the Creative Glass website here.

On 23rd and 24th February I'll be teaching my Crystal pendant workshop. This covers a wonderful array of techniques including  riveting, making unique texture plates with polymer clay, adding gold foil, soldering bezel cup, stone setting and of course working with crystal wands. Oh, and let's not forget we are using silver clay too! It's a great way to expand your knowledge. There is so much to learn and you'll be able to choose from a lovely selection of crystal wands and cabochons to make your own unique piece. 

The next workshop on 25th February is Joyful Whistles. These really are a lot of fun to make and you'll end up with your very own working whistle. Maybe you'll even be able to play a little tune on yours, and if you have a dog what could be better for attracting his/her attention!! :D These are great to wear as a pendant and I wear one on a longer lanyard around my neck too. 

Yes, they really do work!!! Check out my video :D 

On 26th February it's all about rings!!! I'll be teaching my Celestial Rings with their amazing construction and a squared off ring band. The topper is set with lots of super sparkly stones!!! These really are statement pieces :)

Finally on 27th it's all about GOLD!!!!

This workshop is all about adding gold to your work and we'll be looking at various methods. We'll be adding gold by the keum boo method and also looking at various other ways including pen plating and using gold paste :D There is nothing better than a good splash of gold to take your work up a level! 

I'm so looking forward to being back in Switzerland to see old friends and make new ones. 

Don't miss out!!!

Joy x

Ring A Month 2019 - January

I decided it was time to join a challenge again so for 2019 I've joined the Ring A Month 2019 challenge started by the lovely Anna Campbell-Hall.

When Anna first posted that she was going to do this challenge and would anyone like to join her I immediately clicked to join. It was one of those impulse things, I love ring making and I'd already decided I wanted to do some sort off challenge in 2019. It was perfect! 

I was busy thinking out what my first ring would be when Anna posted the theme for the January - which rather took me by surprise - because in all the excitement to join it turned out I'd only read the first half of her post about the challenge!!! 😄. I'd completely missed that there would be a theme for each month!! This actually was a good thing as instead of making some easy ring that just sprang to mind now I would have to do a bit more thinking - making it an even better challenge for the year.

So I got making. I didn't really have a plan so I made a plain wide band with natural uneven edges and went from there. First I added varying sized holes around the band.

I then decided it would be a good thing, over the course of the year, to try to use some of the many dried clay elements I have laying around, and I have lots!! This box has teeny, tiny bits in. I chose some textured discs of clay to fit behind some of the holes on the band.

I added them from the inside of the band to create some textured recesses. I tried to make sure every texture I used was different. One or two are similar but no two are actually the same. 

Once I'd filled as many of the holes as I wanted I drew a pattern onto the plain areas with pencil to see how it would look. I'm not a great fan of plain silver so by carving in a design I could fill up some of the area. 

I thought that looked okay so I went ahead and carved the design onto the surface using a combination of the tip of a needle file and a tiny balled headed burnisher tool. 

You can see in the recess at the front in the photo below that one of the circular textures had a little crack in it. I did debate filling the crack, but as it didn't go all the way through I left it as it was - it added more texture!!!! 😉

Um...there was still still quite a bit of plain silver left so I went with my normal filler when doing designs that I feel are a bit empty. If in doubt add some dots, they always seem to work! 😂 

Finally I did a bit of carving to the edges of the band to make it a more interesting shape.

Finished and ready for firing. It went off into the kiln and was fired at 820C for an hour plus.

After polishing the ring I used some patina to make the recesses dark and to highlight the textures. 

Here's a short video of the ring so you can see all around it. 

I quite like the outcome. I've certainly never made a ring by this method before, and I'm sure I wouldn't of done without the challenge - maybe I will develop this technique more in the future :)

Now I will patiently wait to find out what the theme for February's ring will be! 

Have fun!

Joy x

Enamelling Weekend Workshop

 

It's only a few weeks to go now until our residential enamelling weekend in November!! We still have a couple of spaces on this if anyone else wants to join us. It is going to be a fun time with workshop sessions through from Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon.

 

 

If you've ever wanted to learn more tips and techniques for working with silver clay and how to use enamels to add lovely vibrant colours to your work then don't miss out!!!

 

This workshop will be packed with great info and ideas for creating your own textures to enamel onto, adding stones to fire in place, decorating the back of your pieces and even adding super extra little finishing details like these fun little snakes on the side of the piece below.

 

 

The cost of this workshop includes your hotel stay and food plus you get an amazing 25g of Art Clay Silver to create with! All that for only £399 means it really is an excellent value weekend.

 

We will all eat together through the weekend so it's a chance for everyone to make new friends as well as learning new techniques. There is also a kit fee of £16 and as part of your kit you will get a range enamel colours ready prepared by me to use on the workshop and you get to take them home with you afterwards so you will be all set to carry on your enamelling adventure at home :D

 

You'll find all the details in this brochure :D

 

 This is the program for the weekend. As you can see it will be action packed with never a dull moment! ;)

If you are in Europe you'll find Folkestone is ideally situated right by the Channel Tunnel and there are also regular trains from London that only take around an hour.

 

I'm really looking forward to seeing old friends and new there :) If you have any questions about it do email me!!

 

Have fun!

 

Joy x

 

 

 

 

 



Hidden Lanterns and Joyful Spinners!

I am very excited to be going back over the pond to the USA next month to stay with my good friend, the very wonderful Ann Davis. My flights are all booked and it is only five weeks away!! Ann is a truly amazing and very innovative artist. I always feel so inspired when I stay with her and come back with my head crammed full of new ideas. She has done so many things and is a real fount of all knowledge!!! I always learn new things from her.

 

While I'm there I will be teaching for 3 days at Ann's studio - La Ruche Davis, near Washington, DC.

 

First will be a two day Hidden Lantern workshop. These are complex little pendants with lots of exciting techniques to learn. Each side of the hollow pendant is gently curved.  On the one side we will be making textured areas to enamel into. We will also be adding lovely sparkly accent stones.

 

 

The reverse of each pendant has pierced out areas in the design. This is why they are Hidden Lanterns ;) 

 

On two of the pendants 24k gold has been added inside which shines out through the pierced areas and reflects the light when they are worn that way round. The third pendant is a variation with a removable base. This allows for something different to be placed inside to show through. Of course for me that has to be something colourful!! :D

 

 

This pendant also has small accent stones set down each side.

 

 



One of my favourite parts of these pendants is the tops!!! Each has a different design and loop to hang it with. These really add to the character of each one.

 

I'll also be teaching a one day Joyful Spinner Rings workshop.

 

These fun rings are a delight to wear. Hours of twiddling fun with the inner ring freely moving inside the outer channelled one. There'll be lots of stone setting too to give them sparkle.

 

I've been making lots of examples of them - I love making these!!!

 

This one even has tiny stones set on the sides for even more sparkle!!!

 

I can't wait to see what everyone makes on these workshops. One of the things I enjoy so much about teaching is seeing people take an idea and come up with variations that would never even cross my mind!!!

 

If you want to join us for all the fun do get in touch very soon!! Both workshops are nearly full but there is still a seat or two left at the moment :D I'm looking forward to meeting old friends again and making new ones!!

 

I know I'll come home having learnt so much too!

 

Meanwhile - have fun!!

 

Joy x

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Testing Art Clay Silver 950 Part 2

Part 2 of my Art Clay Silver 950 testing. Don't worry, there won't be a part 3 ;)

 

This will make a lot more sense if you have read Part 1 first, and if you've done that you will also know it is probably a good idea to grab a cup of tea before you start reading this time! Yes, it could be another long post! ;)

 

At the end of the last post I showed you two enamelled pieces. One was made out of AC950 (on the right) and depletion gilded. The one on the left was a circular piece of AC999 attached to a backing of AC950 and the two were fired together. I've now patinated these using Liver of Sulphur to bring up the textures. The LOS worked just fine, exactly as I would expect it to. Here they are all done. I love to patinate most things as it gives the textures definition and seems to make the enamel colours more vibrant :)

 

 

As I mentioned in the last blog post there is a difference between the shrinkage of AC950 and AC999. I've been trying to get a photo showing the slight doming on the piece on the left. As I've failed I decided to try a short video clip. I hope you might be able to see the domed effect in the centre of the back in this.

 

Next I made two more rings to see if the shrinkage seemed fairly consistent and also to try a few different techniques.

 

The first one is...um...a bit strange really! Why? Well I was using up the last bits of clay :D I forgot to take any process photos on this one so you'll have to stay with me here on a description.

 

 

I wanted to see how well the clay moulded. I twisted 2 strands of 1mm wire together and pressed it into two part moulding compound to make a long thin mould that I could use for a ring band. The clay moulded really well and cleanly. Then I added the front decoration. It looks kind of weird because it was all the bits I had left from all the other things I made. I'd made some tiny balls with little bits of clay and also I had two pieces left over for stone settings. I was going to use them on the first ring but changed my mind. So I set the two small barrel shapes with 2mm lab sapphires. I rolled out a tiny piece of clay .25mm (1 card) thick and once dry I added the ten tiny balls using water to join them. Once that piece was dry I sanded the tops off the balls to make that little piece in the middle.

Everything was joined using water only. After firing as per schedule I polished the ring and added some gold. Whenever I do keum boo I always totally polish the piece first then do the keum boo. The gold foil took really easily and without any issues.

Did I mention this was a tiny ring??? Actually it is a UK size N so perfectly wearable, just very thin!! Shrinkage was consistent with the first ring I made at 7 UK sizes. (As a side note I was amused to realise yet again I had created something vaguely bird like!!! or maybe I just see birds everywhere :D )

The third ring I made was more the sort of thing I would make normally. I started out with a snake of clay and then rolled it flat to 1.5mm (6 cards). I joined it into a flat band and once dry I carved it using a graver. I went with a quick simple starburst design to see how it felt. It carved very smoothly and cleanly. Lovely to work with!

 

Next I made a topper. I rolled out clay and textured a circle on both sides to .75mm (3 cards) thick. This is thinner than I would ever use in AC999 on a ring. I domed the circle by forming it over a 13mm bead to dry. Once dry I filed the edges to give a nice serrated look that went with the radiating design I had used.

 

I also filed the edges of the ring band.

 

The stone setting was a little piece I had pre-made in AC999. It was set with a 3mm lab ruby cab. I was interested to see how well the two clays would go together (and I was running short of clay to make a setting in AC950!). I used water to wet both parts and then joined them. It made a very solid join.

 

The topper was attached to the ring band using AC999 syringe. As I had used water only to join the toppers on my other two rings I wanted to see how this worked.

 

I fired the ring to schedule but took it out the kiln hot and placed it on one side to cool. The AC950 polished up very nicely. For this ring I used Black Max to patinate.

 

I was very pleased with the result. Again shrinkage was 7 UK sizes. I made this at a UK size X and it shrank to a UK size Q. After firing there was a certain amount of distortion, but that was very easy to correct on a ring mandrel, and because the fired silver is much harder I found there was less chance of marking it. The domed part held it shape nicely.

 

Finally I made one more piece to enamel. My other pieces had been more tests really so I wanted to make something that would show the colours better. I opted for one of my small butterfly designs.

 

I actually think the AC950 refines up even better than AC999 with baby wipes. Here is the dried butterfly before and after refining. The refining took me about 5 minutes, so very quick and easy.

 

 

This piece was textured to 1mm thick. Even though AC950 is stronger than AC999, for enamelling I would not make pieces any thinner. Enamel will crack on very thin silver unless you counter enamel the back due the stresses of the glass enamel on the silver. I never counter enamel as I always decorate the backs of things. For this little piece I stamped out one of my Joy logos. The AC950 took an impression from the stamp very crisply. I attached a piece of fine silver wire to the back of the piece using AC999 syringe to join it all.

 

 

This piece was fired to schedule at the same time as the previous ring. After firing I depletion gilded the piece until it was very white. Then I re-polished it and enamelled it.

 

And here it is...a rainbow butterfly!!!

 

So what conclusions did I draw from all this testing...

 

First of all - I love this clay!

 

 

Will I use it all the time?

No.

I'll still use AC999 for a lot of things. Depletion gilding works really well on AC950, but it does take extra time. If a piece needs extra strength I'll go with AC950 and put that extra time in if it is a piece to be enamelled. For rings I will definitely go over to AC950. If I am making something where the difference in strength will not be a major issue I'll stick with AC999.

 

For teaching I will most likely mainly stick to AC999 because of the shorter firing schedule, but there will be some things that I'll go over to AC950 for.

 

I'm  delighted to have had a chance to test this clay out - thank you Metal Clay Ltd!! I'm looking forward to the release date at the start of September so I can do more playing. I have lots of ideas in mind that I would not make using AC999 :)

 

If you use silver clay I recommend you give this a whirl and see what you think!!

 

Have fun!

 

Joy x